The Healing Power of Poetry Essay -- Writing Essays

"The Healing Power of Poetry" The devastations and repercussions of war are inimitable, and can sometimes be left unhealed. However, men and women have had to find cures to lick their wounds and resettle the turbulence existing within their minds. In Pat Barker's emotionally powerful war novel Regeneration, we are introduced to a war journal, called the Hydra, on page 84, which served as healing tool for WWI soldiers. This journal contained articles, cartoons, poetry, letters, and all kinds of other different types of writing. Barker uses the Hydra in her novel to mark the healing power of writing in the lives of these men. Poetry therapy has a long history, being recognized as far back as the first songs chanted around the camp-fires of primitive people. To these people, the chant is what heals the heart and soul. In the English language, the word "therapy" comes from the Greek word "therapeia," which means to nurse or cure through expressive arts such as dance, song, poem and drama. The Greeks have also informed us that Asclepius, the god of healing, was the son of Apollo, the god of poetry, medicine and the historical arts (Longo). In addition, mythological beliefs say that Oceanus told Promethus that "words are the physician of the mind diseased." The use of poetry therapy has therefore been discovered by numerous cultures since the beginning of language (Longo). Once recognized for its healing power, this therapy quickly moved to the North American continent. Within the American colonies, the first American hospital to care for the mentally ill was founded in 1751 by Benjamin Franklin, called the Pennsylvania Hospital. This hospital is known to have included reading, writing, and then also the actual publishing of... ...f writing to these men. Not only does it convey the effects of writing, it may also project the idea that reading poetry may also be just as therapeutic. Poetry therapy is not a theme that people would generally relate to the cure of barbaric men at war, which is indeed what makes this novel so brilliant. Soldiers too have a sensitive side, and Barker has proven to acknowledge and praise it. Works Cited Barker, Pat. Regeneration. New York: Plume, 1993. Lee, Stuart. "The Hydra." HTML JTAP Virtual Seminars Project. April 1998. 8 April 2004. <http://www.hcu.ox.ac.uk/jtap/hydra> Longo, Perie J. "Poetry as Therapy." Sanctuary House of Santa Barbara, Inc., 1996-2003. 13 April 2004. <http://www.spcsb.org/advoc/poetrytx.html> Rusche, Harry. "Lost Poets of the Great War." Emory University, 1997. 3 May 2004. <http://www.emory.edu/ENGLISH/LostPoets/>